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Shannon Foraker
Shannon Foraker was a Havenite citizen and an officer in the Havenite Navy. Biography A native of Haven, Lieutenant Shannon Foraker was the tactical officer aboard the light cruiser [[PNS Vaubon|PNS Vaubon]] by 1907 PD, and her extreme technological prowess and talent for extrapolating even minute data into useful information gained Lieutenant Foraker a reputation as a "tac witch", as well as the respect and appreciation of both her commanding officer, Commander Warner Caslet, and Vaubon's People's Commissioner, Denis Jourdain. ( , ) However, while smart and extremely competent in her field of work, Foraker was absent-minded on other issues, particularly those regarding social interaction, which characterized her as a "techno-nerd". In addition, Foraker was one of the few Havenite naval officers who took Manticoran technological superiority not as an insurmountable obstacle, but as a challenge to test their skills and equipment against. Despite the Committee of Public Safety's insistence on egalitarian forms of speech, Foraker usually reverted to calling her senior officers either "Sir" or with their ranks, instead of the officially-sanctioned "Citizen (rank)" form of address. As her technical skills were of great value not only to the ships and units she served in, but to the People's Navy in general, Foraker's tendency to use pre-revolutionary forms of address was conveniently ignored by the People's Commissioners. ( , , ) Her service onboard Vaubon coincided with both Operation Dagger and Admiral Javier Giscard's mission in Silesia. It was her knowledge of PN radar systems that allowed Foraker to identify the presence of five Grayson superdreadnoughts in the Casca System, and it was her attention to minute tactical details which led to the belated identification of Honor Harrington's superdreadnoughts during Task Force 14's engagement with the Grayson Navy at the Fourth Battle of Yeltsin's Star. ( ) By the time Vaubon was assigned to Admiral Giscard's Task Force 29, Foraker still served as the light cruiser's tactical officer but she had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Her skills allowed Vaubon to identify the wreckage of the freighter [[TCMS Erewhon|TCMS Erewhon]], which had been attacked by pirates in the Arendscheldt System. However, Foraker and the rest of Vaubon's crew became prisoners of war when the light cruiser was forced to surrender by the Manticoran armed merchant cruiser [[HMAMC Wayfarer|HMAMC Wayfarer]] (commanded by Captain Honor Harrington), which the Havenite cruiser assisted during a pirate attack. Foraker, as well as her shipmates, was repatriated to the People's Republic rather than being interned in a Manticoran POW camp. ( ) Following her return to the People's Republic, Commander Foraker was assigned to Rear Admiral Lester Tourville's staff onboard the battlecruiser [[PNS Count Tilly|PNS Count Tilly]], and she participated under Tourville's orders on both his attack on the Manticoran-Grayson picket in the Adler System and the subsequent engagement and capture of the Manticoran heavy cruiser [[HMS Prince Adrian|HMS Prince Adrian]], which led to the capture of Commodore Honor Harrington. During the prisoners' stay onboard Count Tilly, Commander Foraker made a point of visiting Harrington and keeping Nimitz supplied with celery. Back in DuQuesne Base and aghast at the treatment inflicted upon Harrington and her fellow prisoners by Commiteewoman Cordelia Ransom's State Security troopers, Foraker joined both Admiral Tourville and her old CO, Commander Caslet, in objection; it was Foraker who prevented the murder of Nimitz by the StateSec troopers by "informing" Ransom that the treecat's death would result in Commodore Harrington falling into a catatonic state or possibly death. Later on, Foraker registered the prisoners' escape from Ransom's personal ship, the battlecruiser [[PNS Tepes|PNS Tepes]], on her tactical console aboard Count Tilly. She moved to erase the footage, but noticed Admiral Tourville behind her. He hesitated only for a moment, and then deleted the sensor recordings himself. ( ) Commander Foraker would remain assigned to Admiral Tourville's staff for the remainder of the war, which included Tourville's command of one of Twelfth Fleet's task groups for the First Battle of Zanzibar, but as a result of the prior incident with Ransom regarding Harrington's treatment, Foraker's personality became more subdued and attentive of her surroundings. ( ) When Oscar Saint-Just ordered the arrest of Admirals Giscard and Tourville in the aftermath of Esther McQueen's failed coup, the StateSec naval squadrons assigned to ride herd on Twelfth Fleet were destroyed by a special program Foraker hid in the tactical updates regularly downloaded into their computers. Her only comment on her single-handed destruction of all twenty-four StateSec superdreadnoughts was, "Oops." ( ) Head of R&D After Saint-Just's death and the subsequent demise of the Committee's regime, Shannon Foraker's technical skill and ingenuity would be quickly recognized by Admiral Thomas Theisman, the new Secretary of War and Chief of Naval Operations of the restored Republic of Haven. Upon Theisman's orders, Foraker was quickly promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and given full responsibility for all research and development operations in the Republican Navy in the facility known as "Bolthole". Her work at Bolthole helped increase the technological level of the Havenite Navy, leading to the quick development of Haven's first pod-laying superdreadnoughts (the ''Sovereign of Space''- and ''Temeraire''- classes), LAC carriers (the ''Astra''- and ''Aviary''- classes), new-style LACs (''Cimeterre''-class) and advanced electronic warfare and fire control systems, such as the Moriarty platforms. ( , ) After the formation and cementing of the Grand Alliance, Admiral Sonja Hemphill led a technical mission to Bolthole, where she and Foraker planned to combine forces regarding Alliance R&D. This was particularly critical due to the repercussions of Operation Oyster Bay, which destroyed wholesale most of Manticore's and Grayson's technological building capacity. ( ) Service Record Promotions * Lieutenant (in or before 1907 PD) * Lieutenant Commander * Commander * Vice Admiral (1915 PD) Posts * Tactical Officer, PNS Vaubon * Operations Officer, Admiral Tourville's staff * Commanding Officer, Project Bolthole References Foraker, Shannon Foraker, Shannon Foraker, Shannon Foraker, Shannon Foraker, Shannon